By Rusty Nixon
Correspondent
WARSAW – A first NLC road trip turned into an offensive eruption for Plymouth’s Pilgrims as they exploded for 16 hits in a 14-7 win at Warsaw.
“I knew a lot of runs were going to be scored here tonight when I got here and saw the flag blowing in center field. I just thought we did a fantastic job overall,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe. “We had some defensive mishaps early and we had to move some people around… Some bad things happened defensively early on, but we shored those up and made some plays.”
Plymouth jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first when Jeremy Drudge drove home Benji Nixon, and Ezra Winkle doubled home Drudge. The Pilgrims fell behind just as quickly as Warsaw put up three two-out runs in the bottom of the first. The Pilgrims then tied it in the second on Benji Nixon’s RBI double, only two see the Tigers score two more in the bottom half.
Jesus Luva came on in the third to relieve starter Nate Nixon, and held the Tigers until they were able to sneak two more two-out runs across in the sixth.
“He went out there like ‘give me some runs and let’s go,’” said Wofe. “It’s hard to come in the middle of the game when you don’t expect to go in there. Pushing some runs across probably gave him some confidence out there, too.”
And the rest was offense as Plymouth pounded out 16 hits including a highlight – back-to-back homers in the fourth – a two-run shot by Cam Dennie, followed by a solo homer by Jeremy Drudge. The Pilgrims broke it open with five in the fifth and three more in the sixth to put it away for Luva.
“It’s all about an approach at the plate,” said Wolfe. “They have a purpose for going up there, they aren’t going up there guessing. There are ‘me’ at bats and ‘we’ at bats and other times we just want to grip it and see how far we can hit it.”
It was a big win for the Pilgrims who struggled in a similar back-and-forth contest just a year ago.
“Last year we came over, it was an up-and-down game and we came out on the wrong end by one,” said Wolfe. “One of our keys is to extend the lead and tonight we did that. When you can get some key at bats through the line up, this can be a pretty dangerous group of guys.”
Plymouth is back at the friendly confines of Bill Nixon Field on Saturday (today) as they welcome LaPorte in for a single game starting at noon. The Pilgrims are now 6-1 on the season.
Plymouth 14, Warsaw 7
Plymouth 2 1 1 3 5 3 0 14-16-2
Warsaw 3 2 0 0 0 2 0 7-10-1
WP – Luva (1-0). LP – Jordan Jones. HR – Cam Dennie (P), Jeremy Drudge (P). 3B – Luke Baker (W), Drudge (P). 2B – Benji Nixon 2 (P), Grant Stukenborg (P), Ezra Winkle (P), Jordan Steffensmeier (W).
